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How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

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Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#151

Post by pg_is_a_butt »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #144
jibe wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait a sec, you drive on the opposite side of the road in the UK, so the advice to stay in the left lane except for overtaking is the equivalent of the advice here to stay to the right, or out of the left lane except when passing.

"is the equivalent of the advice here to stay to the right" Yeah, but the advice in the California DMV handbook is to stay in the middle , not the right. The difference is that, in the UK, the middle lane is explicitly only for overtaking. If you're going the same speed as the cars in the left lane, you're not overtaking, so you shouldn't be in the middle lane. California's guidance is directly contrary to this.

Your comment is directly contrary to itself.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#152

Post by not_kurt_godel »

ryanar wrote: post #2

I feel like I am missing something here, a mile of road in a rural area costs $1,500,000 to reconstruct? How do small towns afford to maintain their roads?? Perhaps there are many costs that don't inflate as the number of miles increases, like the equipment needed to break down and repave the roads?

Cities pay for rural areas, hand over fist: https://www.brookings.edu/research/why-rural-america-needs-c... That's how.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#153

Post by [deleted] »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #85
slowhand09 wrote: post #57

I think of this as I drive 30ish miles each way to work. 5 miles of surface roads, 19 miles of interstate (2 lanes each way), and 6 miles of surface (2 lanes each way). One cause for increased construction is the need for more capacity. My frequent lament is poor driving habits. We have regular instances of sub-optimal speeds in both lanes. A 65 mph limit and vehicles driving 55mph in both lanes, frequently with 1/4…

I was surprised to read this in the California DMV driver handbook: "If you can choose among three lanes, pick the middle lane for the smoothest driving." When I learned to drive (in the UK), the official guidance was to stay in the left-most lane except when overtaking. And then, after overtaking, to immediately return to the left lane.

[deleted]

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#154

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #144
jibe wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait a sec, you drive on the opposite side of the road in the UK, so the advice to stay in the left lane except for overtaking is the equivalent of the advice here to stay to the right, or out of the left lane except when passing.

"is the equivalent of the advice here to stay to the right" Yeah, but the advice in the California DMV handbook is to stay in the middle , not the right. The difference is that, in the UK, the middle lane is explicitly only for overtaking. If you're going the same speed as the cars in the left lane, you're not overtaking, so you shouldn't be in the middle lane. California's guidance is directly contrary to this.

In the US there is no priority with 3+ lanes. You can legally plod along in the left lane without passing anyone. The middle is a safe option to avoid conflicts on either side. For two lanes you are supposed to leave the left/high-speed lane for passing only.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#155

Post by joethebob »

cameldrv wrote: post #128
alamortsubite wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the right idea, but let's not stop there. Why not also tax privately registered vehicles to some degree by their mass? I also like the idea of making fines for moving violations somewhat proportional to vehicle mass. The danger posed to others by a 150 lb moped pales in comparison to that of a 4500 lb pickup truck. At least in the U.S., a ticket for speeding 50% over the limit through a residential neighborho…

Because "privately registered" vehicles don't matter for purposes of road damage. A fully loaded semi is 18,000 lbs per axle. A really huge personal vehicle, an F-350, is 4000 lbs per axle. That's 4.5x the weight, 4.5^4=410, so the semi is doing 410x as much damage. There's really no point in trying to tax personal vehicles for road damage when over 99% of the damage is being done by trucks.

The GVWR on a F350 is around 10-14,000, so somewhere between 5-7k axle load.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#156

Post by briffle »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #85
slowhand09 wrote: post #57

I think of this as I drive 30ish miles each way to work. 5 miles of surface roads, 19 miles of interstate (2 lanes each way), and 6 miles of surface (2 lanes each way). One cause for increased construction is the need for more capacity. My frequent lament is poor driving habits. We have regular instances of sub-optimal speeds in both lanes. A 65 mph limit and vehicles driving 55mph in both lanes, frequently with 1/4…

I was surprised to read this in the California DMV driver handbook: "If you can choose among three lanes, pick the middle lane for the smoothest driving." When I learned to drive (in the UK), the official guidance was to stay in the left-most lane except when overtaking. And then, after overtaking, to immediately return to the left lane.

Oregon has a law that if you have 5 or more vehicles behind you, you must let them pass. It's more for the highways, not the freeway, but I haven't seen it enforced in many, many years

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#157

Post by [deleted] »

justinator wrote: post #73
mumblemumble wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mountain biking is one of the things I gave up when I moved to the city. I thought that maybe I'd occasionally rent a car and drive out to a state park, but what I quickly discovered was that, once driving stopped being a part of my daily life, the idea of regularly driving out to a forest preserve lost its palatability. Largely because I am no longer inured to driving, so any plan for how to spend my leisure time th…

Consider doing multi-day trips from your front door during the weekends (bikepacking). I used to live in Denver and never understood why people would find the need to drive 10 miles to the nearest trails when you could just ride to them. Then I realized, once you're done with those initial 10 miles, you could link up routes that covered practically the entire rest of the state. Now I'm writing a guidebook on those ro…

[deleted]

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#158

Post by cpitman »

wahern wrote: post #141
dmurray wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed while driving in the US that American highway exits seem to be designed differently than those in the UK. The rightmost lane of three-lane highways will often become the exit lane, so if you stick to the rightmost lane you'll frequently need to switch lanes to your left to stay on the road. In the UK, in contrast, the exit lane is usually the new lane, and you have to switch lanes to get into it. So inst…

That depends on the region and age of the road. In more rural areas where the freeways are newer things are much more consistent and usually just as you'd expect. In older areas like New York or California where many of the freeways predate the Federal Interstate system, and where lane expansions, lane extensions, and exits have grown far more organically, there are inconsistent designs (although often consistent wit…

Only tangentially related, but New Jersey has a special case of this. It used to be all in on "jug-handles" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jughandle), where you would need to be in the rightmost lane in order to make a "left" turn. But they have also built intersections that have the standard left turn lane, on the left. You only know which one it is as you approach the intersection, then either need to get all the way to the left or right. Always a fun surprise!

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#159

Post by partiallypro »

melling wrote: post #15

Major urbanized is incredibly expensive. Tens of millions... I read somewhere that China spends $30 million per mile of high-speed rail. 22,000 miles and counting. The US is going to bankrupt itself trying to modernize its aging infrastructure.

China doesn't build things to last, and often builds things very very quickly without longevity in mind. So, I would actually argue the opposite. That Chinese expenditures will likely go up a lot, while US expenditures will be flat. This is for various reasons, but mostly because the US is transitioning toward a remote work model, where in China (at least currently and for the foreseeable future) can't do that because their economy is so reliant on physical human labor. US cargo routes are actually near the most efficient in the entire world, and in the end...that is what a lot of the "wear and tear" comes from.

Re: How Much Does a Mile of Road Cost?

#160

Post by [deleted] »

beerandt wrote: post #146
slowhand09 wrote: post #57

I think of this as I drive 30ish miles each way to work. 5 miles of surface roads, 19 miles of interstate (2 lanes each way), and 6 miles of surface (2 lanes each way). One cause for increased construction is the need for more capacity. My frequent lament is poor driving habits. We have regular instances of sub-optimal speeds in both lanes. A 65 mph limit and vehicles driving 55mph in both lanes, frequently with 1/4…

To get people to respect the passing lane, I propose: Left-most lane on controlled access highways should be rear car, by default, has the right-of-way.

[deleted]
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